English is a battlefield.Even without improving the structure of a sentence, text
editors can rescue bad
copy for caring for the words . They should prefer the short word to the long , the simple word to the complex, the concrete word to the abstract. They should prefer Anglo-Saxon words to foreign . Text
editors may sometimes dawdle but they should never indulge in procastination. When they see bloody international conflict , they should make war with their pen. And at times they should be parsimonious, not to say miserly, with words. Nothing is so tiring to the reader as excavating nuggets of meaning from mountains of words. Nothing so distinguishes good writing as vivid economy. In aline of a Shakespearian sonnet, ever syllable is suggestive. To come to earth ther is a joke about a fishmonger which makes the point. It is an old joke, but perhaps we can regard it as sanctified by custom ; and say it should be recited as an initation ceremony for text editors and translators. The fish monger had a sign which said " FRESH FISH SOLD HERE" , but the fishmonger had afriend who persusaded him to rub out the word "FRESH" because naturally he''s selling it here , in the shop; to rub out the word" SOLD" because naturally he isn''t giving it away for free. And finally to rub out the word "FISH" because you can smell it a mile off. This means that vigorous writing is concise. A sentence shouldn''t contain any unnecesssary words, a paragraph no
necessary sentences, and an essay no necessary paragraphs . This requires that he avoids all unnecessary details , and make sure that every word tells.